Germinal Pierre Dandelin

Germinal Pierre Dandelin ( born April 12, 1794 in Le Bourget, † February 15, 1847 in Ixelles ) was a Belgian mathematician.

His main area of ​​work were conic sections. After the Dandelin dandelinschen balls are named: one or two balls, all affect the generatrices of a right circular cone, and a cross-sectional plane at the focal points of the resulting tapered section; dandelinschen the balls are used to derive the properties of conic sections.

Dandelin studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, and fought in the armies of Napoleon. After his defeat, he returned to Belgium back and became an engineer in the army, but also served as a professor in Liege.

He also created a method for the numerical solution of algebraic equations is derived ( named after him and Karl Heinrich Gräffe Dandelin - Gräffe method).